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America's 10 Fastest-Growing (and Fastest-Shrinking) Jobs

theatlantic.com — The government predicts that healthcare occupations will be booming, while postal service jobs disappear. Feb 8, 2012

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56 Comments

ikorkyiFeb 8, 2012Buried

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it is sad that almost all of the fastest growing jobs put you below the poverty line.

howdoesseanrollFeb 8, 2012Buried

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wow, many of the fastest growing jobs in that article pay under $30k yearly. How depressing.

howdoesseanrollFeb 8, 2012Buried

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well, I can tell you weren't an English major...

badwetterFeb 8, 2012Buried

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Makes perfect sense, boomers are getting older and snail mail is disappearing. No surprises there. Service industries however are worrisome as they are traditionally low wage.

bdbrFeb 8, 2012Buried

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Unfortunately, only two of the top 10 jobs require a college degree (one just an associates). We need significant economic growth to stop running such huge budget deficits, and we're not going to get significant growth through low-wage jobs.

ben7337Feb 8, 2012Buried

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No, you have these things called people who work in the warehouse whose job it is to unload. I promise you one driver doesn't unload every 18 wheeler. In most cases 3 or 4 people from the warehouse do most of it. Sure the driver may help depending on his responsibilities, but that's not required.

Though the long term solution is robots.

dtwritesFeb 8, 2012Buried

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Every few decades jobs shift. Not surprised to see professors on the list; higher ed has truly become a business.

alibaba119911Feb 8, 2012Buried

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oh God, american economy :/

bdbrFeb 8, 2012Buried

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I didn't say I think economic growth will continue; I said we are dependent on it to "grow out" of our public debt. If that doesn't happen, we will have to resort to the other two options (inflate it away or default).

markglFeb 8, 2012Buried

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People are complaining that the jobs are lower paying jobs but the shrinking jobs aren't exactly high paying jobs either. But you know what? They're jobs and people are needed for them. Not everyone can be a post secondary professor. There's nothing wrong with the jobs listed.

ben7337Feb 8, 2012Buried

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What about self-driving cars? A self driving truck cuts out those drivers and their average 40k yearly pay from all the jobs they do. Something tells me self driving 18 wheelers will be one of the first everyday self driving auto's in the USA, around when luxury cars start to gain that feature, but still plenty of time after the military is expected to apply the technology. Within 30 years or so, such jobs will be useless though.

kantspelwriteFeb 9, 2012Buried

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Usually one warehouse worker on a forklift will unload your truck.

chilidogsFeb 8, 2012Buried

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Totally off topic and all tin foily.

golfguy6Feb 9, 2012Buried

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Engineers can get jobs though...

markglFeb 8, 2012Buried

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Right on. I've read before where we are getting to a level where we will not advance like we have in the past 100 years. We've been so inventive that to go to the next step in an evolving economy will be baby steps unlike in the past where the invention of the airplane change the way we travel or the internet that has change the world completely. So it does suck that the next steps will most likely not be big ones like we've done in the past.

chilidogsFeb 8, 2012Buried

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Did you happen to notice that internet thing that you are using?

nitoriFeb 8, 2012Buried

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Only three are above the poverty line and only two make get you into the middle class bracket.

Something needs to be done as this is unacceptable.

ren1999Feb 9, 2012Buried

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Finally an article gets it. But this is something that has already been happening since 1985.
Sophisticated software is going to replace a lot more office clerical jobs.
Robots are going to replace a lot more labor jobs including sorting freight.

What we'll have left are public service jobs. Police, firefighters, teachers, store salespersons and restaurant waiters. These are jobs that nobody wants robots to do.

Robots still can't do construction jobs.

What's going to happen is that the elite still won't pay these service jobs high wages so everybody is going to be poor and the elite will lose fortunes because they won't be able to sell.

Then poor people are going to illegally squat on that big farmland and start farming for themselves. Technology will force us all back into the stone age. How ironic.

markwikFeb 9, 2012Buried

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Healthcare jobs up, Postal jobs down?

Solution: mail transplanted organs through USPS

gkiltzFeb 9, 2012Buried

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Most of those jobs require high school or less. So where are all these newly-minted college degrees going to go?
Are we going to have the same "Brain drain" that Canada, the UK and Ireland suffered for so many years???

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